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Family remembers Evelyn Starner, Larimer County flood victim

By Saja Hindi

Reporter-Herald

Posted:
08/28/2014 10:48:52 PM MDT

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One Year Stronger: 2013 flood anniversary

September marks one year since the historic 2013 flood ravaged homes, displaced thousands of residents and killed 10 people across the state, including four from Boulder County and two from Larimer County.

This special section is a collaboration of the Daily Camera, Longmont Times-Call and Loveland Reporter-Herald.

Eric Starner said his mom was a "headstrong" woman who always put others first, even at the end of her life.

"You can say that about a lot of people," but Evelyn Starner was "honestly that way," said Skye, Eric's wife. "When we needed something, she was always there."

Evelyn, 79, lived in the Cedar Cove neighborhood in the Big Thompson Canyon since the mid-1990s. Her husband died in 2005, and although her children tried to convince her to move closer to town, she refused.

She was killed in the September flood, one of two victims in Larimer County.

Evelyn worked in Loveland at the Good Samaritan Society, a senior services organization, and drove herself to work from Cedar Cove. When the canyon was closed due to weather or other reasons, Eric said she would drive to Estes Park and then to Lyons to make it to work, making her commute sometimes as long as two hours in the winter.

"She went to work every day because it kept her busy," Eric said. "It kept her going."

It was important to her to keep caring for others, Skye said.

"We would always laugh at her because these patients she's taking care of are younger than her," Skye said.

Despite her small stature, Eric said, his mother was strong, sometimes physically lifting patients during their physical therapy.

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And she was brave.

"She was walking her dog, and (a bear) just walked right along beside her, watching them," Eric said.

"She didn't care," Skye said.

'There's not much left at Cedar Cove'

Eric, Skye and their kids had just moved into their new house in Greeley as the rains were beginning last September.

On Sept. 11, the rain began to come down hard, Eric remembers. His brother Shawn had moved back into his mother's house almost two years prior, but that night he was staying at a friend's house.

Evelyn Starner (Courtesy photo)

When Shawn tried to go back to Cedar Cove on Sept. 12, U.S. 34 in the Big Thompson Canyon was closed.

"We'd been talking to mom," Eric said. "She couldn't go to work that morning. The road was closed both ways, so she just stayed there."

Eric recalls calling his mom earlier in the day on Sept. 12, and she had said she was at neighbor Joyce Kilmer's, whose house was about 20 feet lower than her own, helping her put some belongings in a pickup so she could stay at Evelyn's and ride out the flood.

Eric, who works in Denver, said he went to work as normal that night and talked to his mom on the phone again at about 10 p.m.

"She said, 'It sounds like a freight train up there,'" he remembered.

Eric said he asked his mother how close the water was to the house.

"It was dark at that point. She was like, 'I don't know. I can't see out there,'" he said.

Eric tried to call her again about an hour later, but he couldn't reach her. The phone lines had gone down.

"So we started getting kind of nervous," he said.

That was the last time they spoke to Evelyn.

Although some people did a "pre-evacuation" the morning of Sept. 11, by the time a mandatory evacuation was in effect, people at Cedar Cove couldn't leave, Eric said.

Eric and Skye said they tried to go up to Cedar Cove at about 9 or 10 a.m. Sept. 13. But personnel from the fire department's search and rescue team and the sheriff's department stopped them before they reached the mouth of the canyon.

Joyce Kilmer, right, is comforted by Alice Orrison after speaking about her experience Sept. 22, 2013, at the Allnutt funeral home in Loveland. (Loveland Reporter-Herald file photo)

"There's not much left at Cedar Cove," Eric remembers being told.

The family still held out hope.

"At that point, it was like, maybe she got out ... or is staying at another house," Eric said.

Because so much of the road had washed away and trees covered the path, even emergency personnel could only get in by ATV.

After waiting an hour, the Starners said they were told to leave and they would be contacted.

Neighbor attempts rescue

Eventually, Skye was able to reach the sister of her mother-in-law's neighbor who not only confirmed Evelyn's house was washed away, but confirmed the news the family didn't want to hear.

Evelyn had gone back into her house to grab something she'd left as she and Kilmer were trying to evacuate. Skye said they think it was Evelyn's husband's ashes.

As Evelyn walked in, the house broke away from the garage, and Kilmer said she saw Evelyn hanging onto the concrete floor of the garage. Evelyn had broken her back and couldn't move.

Kilmer, who said she was holding Evelyn's dog by a leash in one hand, picked the woman up, then dragged her by the arm up the hill to U.S. 34 until she couldn't anymore. At that point, Kilmer said, Evelyn told her to just go.

"As hard as it is and tugs on your heart, she never, ever would have wanted to live like that (after breaking her back)," Skye said. "I think it gives us that comfort that she was in that state of mind. She was OK with it."

She wanted Kilmer to save herself, Eric said.

"Joyce said she'd hold on to that dog and they were going to ride it out together," Skye said.

Eric said on Sept. 15, they were able to walk up the canyon.

"As we're walking up, we kind of realize there's not going to be anything left. If there is, it's going to be destroyed," he said.

They went looking for his dad's pickup, which is where Evelyn had told Shawn she had put valuables worth saving.

They never found the truck.

It was 10 days before Evelyn's body was found. A man who worked on Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch found her body, Eric said.

The family held Evelyn's service on Sept. 28 at the Good Samaritan Chapel, the same day officials located the other Larimer County victim's body, Patty Goodwine, also from Cedar Cove. Almost 250 people attended, Skye said.

At the memorial, Eric and Skye said they met the man who found Evelyn's body.

"We wanted to talk to him and tell him thanks," Eric said. "I guess he had a pretty rough time with it."

Sitting in the family room of their Greeley home, Eric Starner and his wife, Skye Starner, talk Aug. 5 about Eric's mother, Evelyn Starner, who was killed by the 2013 flood. She lived in Cedar Cove in the Big Thompson Canyon. (Jenny Sparks/Loveland Reporter-Herald)

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